February 9, 2013 – NASA drills on Red Planet – Mars No. 1 Well?
Curiosity’s 2013 first sample drilling hole beside a test of the bit. Photo courtesy NASA/JPL.
Images transmitted from NASA’s robotic rover Curiosity confirm it drilled a well on the martian surface, marking “history’s first ever drilling and sampling into a pristine alien rock on the surface of another planet in our solar system,†according to an article at Universe Today.
After being launched in November 2011, and while exploring the Red Planet’s Yellowknife Bay Basin, Curiosity paused to drill a hole about .63 inches wide and 2.5 inches deep.
Using a rotary-percussion drill bit at the end of its seven-foot robotic arm, the rover’s first off-world well drilled into “a red slab of fine-grained sedimentary rock with hydrated mineral veins of calcium sulfate.â€
Images from Curiosity making hole the day before show the one-ton robot’s drill site, which included a test hole and the successful well. Curiosity collected powdered rock samples through a tube that extended over most of the drill bit.
Curiosity adjusted its drilling technique to recover mineral samples. The six-wheeled rover spudded later wells using “low-percussion†to make sure the rock did not shatter during drilling. Curiosity’s design will serve as the basis for a Mars rover planned for 2020. Learn more about terrestrial drilling history in Making Hole – Drilling Technology.
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